Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ken Clark Organ Trio: Eternal Funk
Ken Clark Organ Trio: Eternal Funk
ByKen Clark leads a tidy organ guitar trio that specializes in funk. The band’s arrangements and executions of two standards and eight originals are hermetically sealed and swing hard in spite of it all. This is not blues-based organ music. It is also not the meandering Jam Band produce of recent memory. While I am sure these guys can (and do) stretch out, here the trio holds things down to short epistles rather than sprawling novels. The longest song is 6:15 ("Truth Is"), the shortest 3:28 ("Eternal Funk").
Immediately noticeable is Clark’s deft footwork. "Eternal Funk" begins with a slick bass line that gives way to a full-force gale of hurricane funkiness. This shows up again on "Duke Ellington Superstar" and "Rhythm & Biz." The former, an original Clark composition is perhaps the finest and tightest combo playing on the disc, sporting the insistent rhythm of Mike Mele and Steve Chaggaris, whose chase of Clark’s off-time antics lead to a most foot-tapping song. Miles’ "Blue in Green" receives a beautifully mellow reading, funky as a house rent party to be sure, but a wonderful ballad performance and well treated by this format.
This is not fried chicken eatin’, cold beer drinkin’, Lucky Strike smokin’ organ trio music. It goes with peanuts and cashews, a traditional gin martini, and a twenty dollar cigar. A super freshman effort indeed.
Visit The Ken Clark Organ Trio and Severn Records .
Track Listing
Eternal Funk; The Curse; Duke Ellington Superstar; Blue in Green; The Doctor is In; Right Now; Young One; Rhythm & Biz; On The Cuff; Truth Is.
Personnel
Ken Clark
Album information
Title: Eternal Funk | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Severn Records
< Previous
center:level:roar